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A QUEST to commemorate Australia's medal-winning soldiers has left a Tinana man humbled and shocked after he read more than 900,000 pages of detailed and graphic documents on the First World War.

Maryborough's Stuart Kaye began the long strenuous process to chronicle all of Australia's World War One Military Medal recipients in mid 2010, after he was approached through the Maryborough Military Museum to join the cause.

"I had been doing some volunteer work at the museum when I was contacted by a man in England who wanted to construct a complete list of all Commonwealth soldiers who were awarded medals in the First World War," Mr Kaye said.

"I agreed, but when I was sent through the list I was so shocked at the state it was in, so it became a real task to get it completed.

"And it needed to be done so that Australian soldiers in the army could have the acknowledgement they deserve."

It took Mr Kaye more than two years of full-time research to uncover all of the unknown medal winners across the country, a cause that took its toll on the retiree.

"Each person had to be triple checked, through a series of systems to make sure I didn't miss anyone that needed recognition," he said.

"They were checked against Maton's records, William's records and the Australian War Memorial's archives.

"In the end about 9974 people received the military medal."

Mr Kaye said he had read some fearfully dreadful stories about the First World War during his two-year researching mission.

"You could be reading pages and pages of in-depth documents about people's injuries, how they were living and where they were serving," he said.

"Then all of a sudden you just come across a person whose story is so troubling that you just have to walk away.

"I can't even begin to comprehend what they went through."

A large portion of the Military Medals were given to soldiers as they continued to serve overseas while others were awarded years later in 1922, Mr Kaye said.

"All of the soldiers who were awarded the medals did some amazing things; truly incredible," he said.

"And in some cases they returned to war again in the Second World War to serve their country as well.

"It's very inspirational."

Each individual entry on the list was recorded in several categories including each soldiers rank, achievements, service number, unit, enlistment, return date and fate.

The list of First World War Military Medal recipients was completed by Mr Kaye in September, and is one of the most comprehensive lists on record in the world.

"I was able to locate an extra 48 people who received the award during my research," he said.

"It was all used as part of a massive medal-winners display in England that included all of the Commonwealth countries."

All of the Military Medal research was awarded the gold medal for research at the Orders and Medals Research Society Convention earlier this year.

But finishing one massive list of award-winners was not enough for the retiree, who has now begun work on a list of Australian Distinguished Conduct Medal winners.

"I started the second list for some of the same reasons as the first, to recognise what people have done," he said.

"Now that I know what I'm doing it should move a lot quicker too."

Medal helps to acknowledge brave soldiers

THE Military Medal was awarded to soldiers from Commonwealth countries that were below commissioned rank and showed bravery on the battlefield.

An officer was first awarded the medal in 1914 during the First World War, and it was discontinued in 1993.

More than 9000 Australian officers were awarded the medal for their heroic efforts in the First World War.

Officers who were awarded the Military Medal are entitled to use the post-nominal letters MM.